Why Momentum is the Most Important Factor to Succeeding in Real Estate

Today I want to talk to you guys about momentum, and why momentum is the most important factor to succeeding in real estate.

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Momentum in Business

I want to start off with a couple of stories. The first one goes back to 2011, when I attended a conference called the National Achievers Conference. Donald Trump was there. He flew in on his helicopter, and he gave a 45-minute speech about momentum. He said that throughout his career as a businessman he has seen many, many other successful folks—billionaires, that have gone against the momentum wave, as he called it. What he said was if things aren’t going the way you need them to, you can truly feel it.

If you are intrinsically involved with your real estate investing and your business, you can see when something is wrong. You can feel that there is a lack of things happening for you. Things aren’t going your way. When you see this happening, you have to stop and reassess. You can’t keep pushing against that. The more you try and go against it, you’re a like a gambler at the casino—the more he throws into in, the more he loses. At the end of the day, the house always wins.

The same thing goes in business. The more you go against the lack of momentum, the more you will lose. Donald Trump said that he has seen a ton of billionaires lose absolutely everything because they did not want to stop. They constantly kept going against the momentum. It was stubborn, and they lost billions and billions of dollars.

Momentum is Everywhere

I can tell you another story now by backtracking to my professional soccer playing days. At this time, things just weren’t going right for me. I was in a bad space of mind. I wasn’t really fit, coming off of an injury. Every single kick that I made—every play—was wrong. I was losing the ball; I couldn’t hit the goal on target; everything was falling apart in front of me. It was like quicksand. The more I struggled, the more I tried to do, and the more I would sink—until I could sink no more.

But I also remember one particular moment in one game when I kicked a ball, and it was just the perfect hit. I hit the crossbar. Ultimately, I didn’t even score a goal, but something felt right. I was like, “Wow, what the hell just happened there? That was absolutely amazing.”

From that point forward, everything on the field that I touched turned to gold. I literally ended the season with 30 appearances, 12 goals, and seven assists. I’m not sure how many of you folks out there are soccer fanatics, but everything I touched turned to gold. That is called riding the momentum wave.

Make Momentum Work for You

Right now, in my real estate endeavors, I have been on the momentum wave for an extended period of time. Everything I touch turns to gold. I literally can’t set a foot wrong. Of course, I make mistakes, but the majority of the things I do are working out. I’m confident; I’m a little bit arrogant, but everything has been working out. So I am riding that momentum wave, taking big risks. I’m literally going all in on various sides of my real estate endeavors, because I feel I’m on a role—that I’ve got that momentum.

Now there have been instances where I’ve lost my momentum. I could feel it happening, and I pulled back. When this happened I literally sat on my butt and did nothing until I hit that crossbar again and felt a shift in me and in my endeavors.

I hope that this blog post is not too philosophical for you guys. I also hope that a lot of you who are heavily involved in the day-to-day running of your business can feel this shift. It’s like there is this weird thing in the air. Something doesn’t feel right. So my message to you guys is this: Don’t push against something that’s not feeling right. If it doesn’t feel right, there is a reason for it. Take a step back, reassess, and don’t be stubborn, because if you do, you will lose.

When things start to change again you will also feel that shift again. Things will feel right for you. Then work your way into it slowly, before going all in, and ride that momentum wave—just like I have been for a while now.

Do you have experience with momentum? Tell me your stories in the comments. I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’d love to hear your opinions. And if you want any more clarity, just ask below!

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About Author

Engelo Rumora, the Real Estate Dingo and your favorite Australian, quit school at the age of 14 and played professional soccer at the age of 18. From there, he began to invest in real estate. He now owns real estate all over the world and has bought, renovated, and sold over 500 properties. He is currently in the process of launching an ICO that will “Decentralize The Real Estate Industry.” He’s also known for giving houses away to people in need and his crazy videos on YouTube. His life’s mission is to be remembered as someone who gave it his all and gave it all away.

7 Comments

Hey Engelo,
Momentum in real estate has a lot factors involved. Maybe you got a bank willing to fund a lot of deals for you or a private investor or two. It may include having a good contractor or repair team so rehabs get done fast. The market plays a large roll too. Are houses selling pretty cheap or are you getting good deals? Is your word of mouth reputation getting you good deals because folks know you can close fast? All of those things kind of have to hit at the same time in order to really make things pop. Now there is a down side. You can easily over extend and use up all of your operating capital, or get too many houses needing fixed up and not being able to work on all of them due to lack of time, contractors or money. Maybe your market is dropping and so you can buy a lot but you end up with houses that are going down in value. You have to stop and analyze every so often. If you can flip a few and keep making money great, but always stop and reflect on how things are balanced and try to see the big picture not just the next deal. It can save you a lot in the long run.

To each his own, personally I subscribe to the Buffet philosophy / approach on investing which for defined periods of time under very specific conditions can suggest there is real opportunity in taking a path that runs in clear departure from the “momentum”, if I am understanding that term correctly as it is used here.

Does not necessarily mean always being a contrarian, or fighting the tide for sake of fighting the tide, but an understanding that sustained irrationally driven momentum itself represents an opportunity that can be exploited by taking positions contrary to that of the emotionally blinded stampeding herd. You won’t always be right (at least not immediately), but the potential for long term gain is massive.

This is the part of RI that many do not understand. The middle class depends on a base of earned income, scholarly achievement and pay high taxes. Government policy is stacking the deck against them. When government policy favors a class of people momentum is gained and success will follow. Think of it as a casino. The house always has the deck stacked so that profit is always in the house’s favor. The gamblers are the high tax payers (working and middle class) and the house is their government. Passive investors and portfolio investors take a stake in the house (government) and the house (government) rewards them with profit sharing (low tax rate). This is how momentum is in the form of reinvestment capital propels the passive and portfolio income investors into multimillionaires, like me! OH ! then there is capital gains, the house gives you a free pass and very low tax rate on capital gain. It’s kinda no brainer! Every multimillionaire knows this and I enjoy sharing my success with others.

Excellent – unique
In some of the comments people are taking “momentum” to be something external, whereas I believe you are talking about the internal. No one talks about intuition in real estate, everyone is too focused on logic and analysis. I know exactly what shifts in momentum you are talking about; these are the shifts that ask you to zig when logic and other’s advice is pushing you to zag.
BP needs more articles like this!

This is the difference between the multimillionaire and the wannabe. The internal feeling an investor has that all is going their way is when things start to unravel. I can’t make a mistake, I have no idea why I’m making money. The savvy investor knows why money is being made because that investor has the bigger picture of what it takes to make money. Local trends, government policy and a number of external factors that are the bigger picture. When momentum occurs and the investor is making money, that investor better know why and moreover what is prudent.